


You Should Know Where I'm Coming From

by badassfics



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics), Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: Choose your own canon, Explicit Language, Getting Together, Introspection, M/M, Overprotective, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, Protective Jason Todd, Protectiveness, Relationship Discussions, Smoking, bruce wayne is an okay dad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:14:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27588662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badassfics/pseuds/badassfics
Summary: Dealing with Jason's overbearing sense of right and wrong is a hassle, but Dick might be up for the challenge.
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Jason Todd
Comments: 10
Kudos: 169
Collections: Dick Grayson Fic Exchange 2020





	You Should Know Where I'm Coming From

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nightwhelmed](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightwhelmed/gifts).



> Filling the prompt of overprotective Jason with his motorcycle and smoking. I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Part of the Dick Grayson Fic Exchange 2020. Title from Banks' song, "You Should Know Where I'm Coming From".

Red Hood coming in to assist on a family mission was always a mixed blessing.

He’s a big help of course, a great fighter who really knows his way around bombs and can bring the right kind of firepower. He doesn’t even kill anymore, not when he’s in Gotham anyway.

But he also has trouble playing nice with the team.

Case in point: picking petty squabbles with Batman after an all-hands-on-deck situation fighting Mad Hatter and an actual army of hypnotized soldiers. It was frustrating for them to have to subdue enemies with real skill while also having to be careful not to inflict any severe damage on mind-controlled innocents; the work, while not much of a challenge for any one of them, was tedious and slow. Some of them were understandably frustrated. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t anything too difficult for them to handle.

The problem starts after they win the day, with Batman saying something like, “Nightwing, you manage the clean up here. Robin and I will take Mad Hatter into GCPD.”

Dick doesn’t know _why_ , but somehow Jason takes offense at that.

“Fuck, B. Need him to shine your shoes too?”

Bruce stiffens at that, and Dick holds back a groan. How hard is it for everyone to get along for five more minutes? Why does Jason need to drag _Dick_ into his issues with Bruce?

“Is there a problem?” Bruce responds. It breaks Dick heart a bit that he can tell Bruce is actually affected by the comment. Dick can relate, he had thought their relationship was doing better too.

Jason just shrugs in response. “I know Penny-One taught you manners. It won’t kill you to say please once in a while,” he says.

Bruce’s frown doesn’t budge, but he turns back to Dick without acknowledging Jason.

“I trust you, Nightwing,” Bruce says. He even gives Dick a genuine, if a little awkward, squeeze on the shoulder.

And then he swings away without another word.

Robin goes to follow him with a _-Tt-_ aimed at Jason’s direction. For his part, Jason still doesn’t look pleased. Dick has no idea how to deal with that, but he’s saved from having to decide when Duke steps up to diffuse the tension.

“Okaaay. How about ‘Hood and I handle the southern edge of the battle and work our way up? We can meet you guys in the middle,” he says. That’s fine with Dick, and as much as he wants to resolve whatever weird conflict just came up in the group, he’s glad for the chance to get his bearings about it first. Duke strides over to nudge Jason to move and gives everyone a friendly salute before taking off.

Jason turns to follow, muttering “he still didn’t say please” as he goes.

“Okay, what the hell was that?” Steph pipes up. Dick just shakes his head in response. Beats him.

“Civilians,” Cass reminds them.

“Right, Batgirl and I will circle the perimeter to see if any civilians need help and lead them away from the clean up. Give a signal if you need us,” Steph says.

That leaves Dick and Tim to handle the northern half of the battle. He’s happy that rounding up disoriented victims of hypnotising and directing them to medical care doesn’t take much brain power. That way, he can spend the rest of the night trying to figure out what in the world just happened. Maybe also make a plan for how to confront Jason about it too.

Like hell he was just going to let it go. 

As he and Tim meet Duke at the rendezvous point, Dick feels a pair of eyes watching him. He doesn't look back. Doesn’t want to tip off whoever’s tailing him. A simple glance at the windows across from him confirms what he already knows; a red helmet gleams in the reflection. He knows Jason could have avoided being seen if he really wanted to, so when the little flash of red starts grappling away, Dick takes the invitation for what it is and turns to follow. He wants to know what Jason's deal was tonight and hopefully find a way to keep Jason from rocking the boat again every time the family needs his help.

He trails for a few blocks until they are deep into the Narrows. Then Jason is dropping down on a hidden alleyway, and by the time Dick’s there to follow, he is left alone with an open door.

He doesn’t know what he expects walking in, but a large garage space probably wasn’t it.

There’s not much to the place. The most eye-catching thing inside the whole area is Red Hood’s motorcycle, fitted in red and matching his infamous helmet. Other than that, there’s a workbench with tools and a set of lockers against the wall. Very nondescript. No one would know this was apparently one of Red Hood’s hideouts if they happened to stumble upon it, but Dick doesn’t doubt that the security in this place would prevent that from ever happening.

Clearly this isn’t a safehouse or even a base of operations. There’s no computer setup or a proper desk or even a corkboard with extensive notes and blurry suspect photos tacked to it. Unlivable conditions for a vigilante.

He finds Jason in the middle of it all, helmet off and in the process of removing the red fairings from his bike.

“You going to tell me what tonight was about?” Dick asks.

Jason just gives a long suffering sigh, as if he wasn’t the one dragging Dick into his fights with Batman. For someone who basically invited Dick to his secret hideout, Jason doesn’t look very comfortable with him being there. He finishes stripping his bike bare before speaking.

“B’s such an ass sometimes, especially to you, and you don’t even notice it anymore,” Jason finally says.

Dick sighed. “Look, I really don’t want to be in the middle of your weird thing with Bruce. I get it, he’s bossy and emotionally stunted. Do you really think I don’t know that? But you don’t have to start shit in the field every time it happens. Especially not over the littlest of things. C’mon Jay, family shouldn’t nitpick each other, we’re better than that.”

“When did basic respect for you become a “little thing”?” Jason asks.

Dick didn’t really expect a response like that. Since when did Jason care about Dick’s _feelings_ getting hurt? Before he can even think about how to respond, Jason continues.

“And I have no interest in being part of your family. Not if that means putting up with Bruce treating everyone like his personal little soldier,” he says.

Dick is a little torn between being touched that Jason still seems to care about him and being completely frustrated at Jason’s insistence on seeing every single thing Bruce does in a negative light. Dick never tolerated being used as a tool against Bruce. He knows now that Jason means well by it, or at least had good intentions, but he’s not just going to let Jason’s words go unaddressed.

He knows he can’t win in trying to convince Jason to let up on Bruce. But he might be able to figure out why Jason feels the need to get in a huff over Dick, of all things.

“Then what about me?”

Jason doesn’t meet his gaze.

Dick walks over and stands on the other side of the bike, facing Jason head on. “If I’m not family, then what am I to you?”

He can see Jason working his jaw, and for a moment it feels like he’s not going to get a response at all.

In the end, Jason settles on just avoiding Dick’s question altogether. “You grappled here from Bludhaven, didn’t you?”

Dick’s used to having his attempts at emotional conversations dodged, so he lets it slide. He’s not sure he was ready to hear the answer to that particular question anyways, if Jason even really knows what his answer would be. They've always had a complicated relationship, to say the least. That’s okay, Dick doesn’t plan on letting the topic go for too long.

“Yeah I did,” he says instead of pushing it.

“Hop on, I can give you a ride,” Jason says.

“You don’t need to do that Jay.”

“It’s a whole city away, and you just spent the entire night fighting nonstop. Just take the ride.”

“...If you’re sure," Dick responds. "Don’t think we're done with this conversation though.” Maybe a break and a long ride will give Dick a chance to figure out what the hell is going on between them right now.

That’s how Dick spends half an hour with his arms wrapped around Jason’s waist, cruising through late night roads and wondering just how little he understands the man in front of him. It wasn’t too long ago that he thought Jason hated him. Now, he’s faced with the possibility that, not only does Jason not hate him, but he might actually _care_ about him. Care enough to drive him home in the middle of the night, enough to pick a fight with Bruce just so Dick gets a little recognition.

What’s just as mind-boggling is that Dick thinks he actually likes the sound of that.

Being on good terms with Jason had eluded him for so long. But he tried, he really did. He’ll be the first to admit that it wasn’t enough back when Jason was still Robin, as much as Dick had tried to reach out, there was always the looming shadow of the Bat coming between them. Hell, there still was. It's not like Bruce was trying to internationally come between them, but Dick wasn't keen on making up with Bruce back then, and he knows now that Jason's intense ideals about loyalty prevented him from taking up Dick's offers to bond one on one.

It's a little ironic how things have practically reversed for them.

So they never had the opportunity to grow close, and then Dick spent the next few years trying to make up for the fact that he missed his chance to have a relationship with Jason. In the time that Jason was dead (plus the time in between, when he had come back to life with Dick being none the wiser) he tried his best to be a good brother, to Tim and later to Cass, and in Dick's mind part of the reason he was doing it was _for_ Jason. He never stopped mourning the brother he never had.

Maybe that’s where he went wrong, turning Jason into something he wasn't and not being ready to let go of that warped memory in his head when Jason came back into their lives as a whole new person.

As they reach Dick’s apartment building and park Jason’s bike in the alley behind, Dick feels a new resolve to fix this mess with Jason.

“You know we aren’t done talking right?” Dick says to him.

Jason takes his motorcycle helmet off, maybe just to show Dick the mulish expression on his face. “What? You wanna have a heart to heart in the middle of this alley?”

“We can always take this up to my apartment if that’ll make you more comfortable.”

Jason sighs, “Fine. Lead the way, Dickiebird.”

They climb the fire escapes all the way up to Dick’s top floor apartment, and as he is disarming his security, Jason speaks up again.

“Look, can you just...give me a minute? To compose my thoughts. I’m not sure I’m ready to have this conversation.”

Dick raises an eyebrow. “Will the five minutes it takes for me to shower make you any more ready?”

“...it’ll help.”

“Fine. But you know if I come out and you’ve run away, I can and will hunt you down right?”

Jason must be out of words for the moment because he just shrugs a shoulder. Dick accepts that as good enough; he knows he can make good on his threat if it really came to that.

So Dick climbs in through his now open window and spends five minutes under the spray of his shower trying to mentally prepare for whatever Jason wants to say to him. He knows he’s not going to let this die until he can get better answers for where he stands with Jason. Tonight showed him that it might not be in as bad a place as he once thought. But that leaves Dick still wondering why there is still that ever uncrossable distance between them.

He comes out of his shower determined to end the night knowing why.

As he makes his way back towards the window, he notices that Jason is about halfway through smoking a cigarette.

“I thought you quit those things back when you were Robin,” he says.

Jason huffs a laugh with smoke streaming out between his lips. “They’re still good to have for stressful situations.”

“Is talking to me really that stressful to you?”

Jason turns away from the window, away from where Dick is watching the back of his head while he stubs his cigarette out on the railing of the fire escape. “You have no idea,” Jason finally says.

Dick waits patiently for Jason to elaborate.

“Do you...do you recognize the place I store my bike?” Jason asks.

It takes Dick a moment, but then, “It used to be a repair shop. Some front for the Russian mob that fixed up cars, a long long time ago.”

“And do you remember how we met?”

Dick furrows his brows. “Yeah, I saved you during that bust on a coke lab. Why is this—”

“We met at that same repair shop actually. You were Robin then.”

"..."

“Oh my god...you’re that kid who stole a tire iron from the mob?!” Dick says.

Jason just laughs, “What does that not sound like me?”

“Why didn’t you tell me that when we met again after Bruce took you in?”

Jason’s smile dries up, and he ducks his head. “I didn’t want to have an even worse first impression than you already had of me when you saw me as Robin.”

Dick’s about to tell him that that’s ridiculous, but Jason continues.

“Look, that first meeting, our real first meeting, was a big moment for me. I thought I was busted for sure when _Robin_ found me sneaking out of the mob’s chop shop with a tire iron in hand. But you… you let me explain. Let me give you my spiel about how I needed to boost things to survive, and if there was anyone that could take me stealing from them, it was definitely the mob. You let me go even when Batman probably would've sent me into the system, maybe because you actually know how bad it is. No one had ever given me a chance like that before.

“That’s why when I came back and decided to play by the rules, that garage is where I chose to store my things. It was a place that reminded me… it reminded me that I could still be a hero. That I could still be the guy who… who deserves a chance.”

“Jason, you've always deserved a chance, I'm so sorry I didn't give that to you when we met again.”

"No... that's not—" Jason took a deep breath. “When we were in my garage, you asked what you meant to me?”

Dick couldn’t do anything but nod.

“Coming back, working with the team… it made me realize things. First off, it made me realize Bruce is way more rude than I ever remembered. That’s annoying,” he huffed. “But I also...I also realized too much had changed since I was Robin. Realized that the family you guys built while I was… gone… was something I didn’t want to be a part of. Not if it meant playing the same role I did before I died, not if it meant defining my worth by how much Bruce needed me.”

“That’s… fair,” Dick says.

“I always looked up to you, even way back then. Part of that was because of how confident you always were, how independent of all of Bruce’s bullshit. That’s why I can’t fucking stand it when he still acts like you’re not his equal or something, like he can still order you around,” Jason goes on.

“Jason, I really don’t need you to protect me from Bruce...”

“I know! I know, it’s just,” Jason takes another steadying breath and braces himself on the railing of the fire escape. He speaks up again in the softest voice Dick’s ever heard from him:

“I’ve been in love with you from the moment I first saw you.”

Dick felt stunned. That’s not what he expected, but also somehow not...surprising.

Jason continues without giving a chance for Dick to respond, “And I know I’m pretty shit at expressing it. I won’t be, y’know, picking fights with Bruce over you if that’s not what you want. Just, you asked what you meant to me and now you know.” He finally turns around to face Dick, except he can’t seem to meet his eyes anymore and has a bright red blush across his cheeks.

Dick thinks he’s never seen something so endearing.

He smiles, “Thank you, Little Wing. Thank you for telling me.”

Jason groans. “We don’t ever have to talk about this again, okay?”

“Well I didn’t say that.”

Jason’s eyes snap to his. His teal blue eyes are showing a vulnerability Dick has never seen on him. He thinks he likes the look.

“Give me a chance,” Dick says.

Jason's eyes go wide. Maybe with surprise, maybe with a little hope.

“Give me a chance to figure out if I can feel the same way,” Dick goes on.

“Okay,” Jason says, that stunned look still on his face. How has Dick not realized before how handsome he is?

Dick flashes him a smile, “Maybe we could team up more often, just the two of us.”

“I, yeah. That sounds good. Great idea.” Has Jason always been this adorable blushing?

Dick can’t resist teasing him. “That way you don’t have to get all overprotective about my honor.”

Jason buries his face in his hands.

“Yeah, sure, thank you for being _so_ considerate,” Jason groans.

Dick gathers Jason into his arms.

“Well yeah, that’s why you love me.”

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first published fic in like four years. I hope it's not as rusty as I felt writing it! Constructive criticism or discussion more generally is welcome in the comments, thank you for reading!


End file.
